A herder with his livestock in Tov Province, Mongolia ©World Bank
Livestock farming is deeply rooted in Mongolia’s cultural heritage and is the backbone of the country’s rural economy, supporting nearly a third of the population. However, the sector faces significant challenges from environmental degradation and climate change, including an increasing frequency of devastatingly harsh winters, known as dzud. The World Bank’s Livestock Commercialization Project offers a comprehensive approach to addressing these challenges, focusing on emergency response, climate resilience, animal health, and market innovations.
Emergency response: A safety net for Mongolia’s herders
Mongolia’s mostly nomadic herders are no strangers to climate-induced disasters, with dzud posing a recurring threat to their livelihoods. To mitigate these risks, the Livestock Commercialization Project integrates disaster relief measures to respond quickly to emergencies. During the 2021-2022 dzud, its Contingent Emergency Response Component was activated to deliver essential aid including feed, veterinary services, and temporary shelters for livestock. Over 11,800 metric tons of high-energy concentrated animal feed was distributed to 46,470 herder households across 74 districts in 6 provinces. One-time cash assistance was provided to almost 180,000 herder households to help them withstand the overlapping crises of COVID-19, dzud, and high intensity dust storms.
To ensure a steady supply of nutritious feed during harsh winters, the project supported local companies establishing feed hubs across vulnerable regions. These hubs produce fodder and feed crops, process, store and distribute high-quality concentrate feed, allowing herders to sustain their livestock through severe weather. The feed hubs also contribute to environmental sustainability by reducing methane emissions from enteric fermentation in ruminants by promoting wheat bran, which is a byproduct of milling, as feed in winter and switching to extruded feed concentrates and enhancing soil carbon stocks by reducing grazing pressure on pastures. A feed hub established by Buyant Tuv LLC under the project helped herders achieve zero livestock losses during the last dzud and increase productivity by over 36 percent, while helping reduce emissions by about 290,000 tons of CO2 equivalent through improved productivity.
Emergency feed distributed to herders during the 2021-2022 dzud ©World Bank
Animal health and market innovations
Improved animal health is a cornerstone of livestock productivity. The project prioritizes animal health systems by improving surveillance and combating transboundary animal diseases. The project has upgraded provincial veterinary laboratories to international standards and trained nearly 3,000 veterinary professionals. During the summer of 2021, Mongolia witnessed widespread outbreaks of multiple animal diseases including Foot and Mouth, Pestes-Petit-Ruminants, and Lumpy Skin Disease. The project helped the government deliver 6.5 million doses of strategic vaccines, resulting in zero active cases by April 2022.
Innovation and collaboration are at the heart of the Solutions Marketplace, a platform introduced through the project to connect herders, researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors. The Marketplace allows 35 small Mongolian firms to develop productive partnerships in animal health, breeding, feeding, and the adoption of climate-smart husbandry practices. These partnerships have reached over 10,200 beneficiaries and increased livestock productivity by up to 30 percent.
Outcomes of the Solutions Marketplace platform introduced through the project
Technological advancements
Since its launch, the project has helped introduce innovative technologies in Mongolia’s livestock sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the project turned to digital technology to continue training and outreach of nomadic herders. Hydroponic technology was introduced to produce enhanced nutrient feed for winter feeding of livestock, and artificial insemination to enhance herd quality. Blockchain technology is also being supported to strengthen traceability along the livestock value chain and streamline logistics. The Facebook platform was leveraged for real time disease surveillance.
Khanbogd Cashmere LLC, a Mongolian cashmere manufacturer and exporter renowned for its high-quality, sustainable products and commitment to ethical practices and cultural preservation is strengthening herder cooperatives and leveraging blockchain technology to enhance traceability along the livestock value chain and streamline logistics. The project has mobilized over 1,450 herders in 17 cooperatives, with 300 herders receiving Sustainable Fiber Alliance certification. Certification has led to a 30-ton increase in sustainable cashmere production capacity, with price premiums reaching up to 19 percent above prevailing market rates. Additionally, the project has developed the EZEN cashmere brand, using certified cashmere exclusively sourced from sub-project-supported herders, ensuring sustainability and premium market positioning.
Digital Credit LLC, a Mongolian technology development company, received project support to develop an e-commerce platform that connects nomadic herders with markets and improves food safety through product tracing. Partner herders collaborate with the company to optimize animal nutrition using conserved fodder and formulated feed, which supports healthy weight gain. This approach results in a 150 percent increase in herder income and an estimated 9 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Bank’s Livestock Commercialization Project in Mongolia provides a holistic approach to enhancing resilience and sustainability in the livestock sector. By improving productivity through better animal health and a commercialized value chain, herders can boost their competitiveness, drive economic growth, create rural jobs, and enhance food security and safety. By integrating emergency response, animal health, market innovations, and advanced technologies, the project supports Mongolia’s herders in building a secure and sustainable future. The project’s comprehensive strategy offers a blueprint for resilience, combining proactive measures, indigenous knowledge, and innovative financial tools.
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As an online instructor, many of the skills students learn are applicable to technology's far reaching hand. Countless students, adult learners at that, continually ask, "What degree do I anticipate will be needed in the future?" My response is general, as I aim to hone in on skills, rather than a career or degree. With twins of my own, barely two-years old, my goal as a father and educator is to give... them tools - tools to quickly adapt in whatever economy, regardless of major or degree program. Today, it's more about knowing where to gather information versus retaining information. Josh
Read more Read lessThe issue of 21st century skills is indeed a very relevant and important topic for both developing and developed nations. Within the South Africa context a considerable effort has gone into this matter with the expansion and large sums of money invested in Further Education and Training Colleges. A genuine attempt to involve industry in discussions and decision making is yielding results. My sense... is that there has to be a two pronged strategy to this issue. Firstly, one needs an education system that provides quality education with a major focus on outcomes. This will mean that that the througput rate will be high thus graduating the majority of children from the schooling system. It is important particularly in developing economies to ensure children learn to read and write and are able to have the basic skills. The second strategy is to involve industry in the education debates. The relationship between education systems and industry should be a dynamic one. Ultimately, it is important to advance skills at a general level in the schooling system which should include, critical thinking, being mindful, adaptabilty, flexibility, being team players as well as being vigilant and curious about current economic and soical realities.
Read more Read lessI can't help but think deeply for Uganda the endless possibilities that could bring a futuristic long lasting change and growth. A mix of formal training VS formal training. #skillsdevelopment
One useful way into the problem of skills mismatch is to picture young people making investment decisions as they accumulate qualifications and experience through their schooling in the hope of optimising their earnings and/or job satifaction when they get into the labour market. Like any market, such investments can only be effective when the consumer has access to relevant and reliable information.... With the labour market changing so rapidly, becoming ever more complex, it is easy to see the way that it has become harder and harder for young people around the world, but espeically in countries lacking coherent pathways guiding learners into work, to align their human capital accumulation with labour market demand. As the OECD pointed out in Learning for Jobs (Chapter 3), this is why careers advice is so important, and especially access to first-hand insights from working professionals who are seen as providing trustworthy and relevant information by young people (employers engaging with young people through schools can be seen as being a proxified version of the weak ties that Granovetter writes about). While this has long been accepted, the challenge has always been to secure such first-hand employer engagement in education at scale and at low cost - and this is spite of there commonly being huge willingness on both sides to work more closely together. The UK experience (as distinctive as it is) shows that scale and efficiencies can be achieved through use of online networking - less than two years after its launch the majority of secondary schools in the country have signed up to www.inspiringthefuture.org programme senidng thousands of messages to employee volunteers willing to participate in careers fairs and events + CV and interview practice. Use of online technology massively reduces costs, enabling (in the UK) free provision of a service which removes barriers connecting the two sides, providing a significant increase in ampliification into schools of labour market signalling. Some links that might be useful: http://www.educationandemployers.org/media/19676/r-employer-engagement-literature-review-2014.pdf http://www.educationandemployers.org/research/taskforce-publications/wage-premiums/ http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415823463/ http://www.educationandemployers.org/media/18037/nothing_in_common_final.pdf
Read more Read lessWhile we think of the new set of skills required to successfully navigate the modern world of employment (including self-employment), there is need for educationists and policy makers to rethink the number of years our kids spend pursuing formal education. Do they really need to spend a minimum of more than 15 years (assuming a 6-6-3 system) of schooling to obtain the first degree with just general... skills? There is need for an overhaul of education systems in order to produce graduates with specialized skills (tailored to market needs) after those many years in school. The time saved and greater skills gained will go along way in uplifting economies.
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